New Forum: Homework Help

[ElectroMaster]

I have setup a Homework Help forum. This is a trial at the moment to see how it goes. If you have any comments about it please reply.

[Thunderchild]

I think its a good idea and you have done well to stress the need for proper titles and information. generally the tell tale sign of a home work thread is a title saying urgent or help please or help and then a question thats rather lacking in actual information

[pperker]

Well, this is indeed a very good idea. A common forum like this will be very helpful to students, teachers and all those who need homework help.

[Warpspeed]

As a now retired electronics engineer, is this really a good idea ?

If you are having serious dramas with your homework ASK your lecturer.

Suppose I have no idea about something, and some guy on the internet just gives me the short answer.
I just scrape through the course, but still have no idea how the thing works..

Another scenario is PAYING someone to do your assignments for you.
This goes on all the time these days, but NEVER in the old days..

One day you will go to a job interview and the interviewer will ask "what can you tell me about transconductance amplifiers".

And you will say WTF ???.

After you have been to twenty, or eighty job interviews and still have no job, maybe paying that guy to do all your homework, and getting freebie answers off the internet Forums was not so smart.

Professional engineers Forums like "Eng-Tips" will boot students right off the Forum for asking questions that are very obviously homework related, it is fairly easy to tell too.
That happens all the time.
You will be flagged, and banned from Eng-Tips quick smart.

But it is a brilliant place to go for genuine assistance IN YOUR ENGINEERING JOB.

[ElectroMaster]

The point of the forum is for students to come, where there are many experts and ask for help, not get the work done for them... Most members that help out and respond are very good at doing that.

Also, the "can you help" questions for homework were always here, now the only difference is that they are in a dedicated forum.

[ericgibbs]

hi warpspeed.

I think you will already find that the majority of qualified/professional engineers on this forum do not 'do' the homework for students, we do however give hints/tips on how to solve the problem.

I am puzzled why you find its in order for a supposed professional engineer to ask for 'tips' on that other forurm in order to his job and a student should not be allowed ask for guidance on his homework.

[Warpspeed]

Originally Posted by ericgibbs

hi warpspeed.

I think you will already find that the majority of qualified/professional engineers on this forum do not 'do' the homework for students, we do however give hints/tips on how to solve the problem.

I am puzzled why you find its in order for a supposed professional engineer to ask for 'tips' on that other forurm in order to his job and a student should not be allowed ask for guidance on his homework.

That is a fair question.

I guess the difference is that student courses are designed to teach, but often the temptation for students is to try to get the quick answer the easy way, without gaining the deeper understanding of how or why that goes with it. Mentoring by a lecturer can provide that. Swapping answers in the locker room, or over the internet can be somewhat lacking.

I have assisted post graduate students with certain aspects of projects, with the full knowledge and approval of the Professor. I have also been approached by students on the sly to complete assignments for money. While one is ethical, the other most certainly is not.

The Eng Tips forum is the type of place where a professional electronics engineer (or any other type of scientist or engineer) may seek guidance, or the answer to a particular question that only someone from another discipline can probably answer. I have often asked questions that concerned projects I have been involved in that had little or nothing to do directly with electronics.

It may be something obscure like legal issues, or government regulations.

Likewise people from other disciplines can gain advice from the electronics guys.
It is kind of a think tank for professionals.

To really get the feel of the place I suggest you visit there and see for yourself.
Eng-Tips Forums

And here are some rigidly enforced rules for posts at Eng-Tips.
Note particularly what they say about student posts, and homework.
Eng-Tips - Posting Policies